The Alliance Secretariat, Fair Trade Tourism has been named among the top 20 certification schemes for sustainable tourism. Certification programmes under the Alliance members, Seychelles Sustainable Tourism Label and Eco Tourism Certification Program Botswana were also included in the list.

The list was published in the Tourism and Greenwash Report, which is published by Totem Tourism, and aims to provide an analysis of green tourism certification schemes and expose misleading green marketing.

According to the report, there are a number of factors increasing tourism’s energy consumption, including growing numbers of international tourist arrivals, trends to travel further and stay for shorter periods of time and the use of energy-intensive transport modes.

There are currently over 150 green branding certifications. However, the rise in awareness around green issues has led to more businesses being keen to publicise green credentials, even when these are non-existent, the report notes.

According to the report, the top certification schemes are as follows: